Early Diary of John Adams, volume 1

43 Harvard Colledge June 8th. 1753. JA Harvard Colledge June 8th. 1753. Adams, John

Harvard Colledge June 8th. 1753.

8 Friday.1

At Colledge.2 A Clowdy, Dull morning, and so continued till about 5 a Clock, when it began to rain moderately But continued not long, But remained Clowdy all night in which night I watched with Powers.3

The first day of the first quarter of the 1753–1754 academic year (MH-Ar: Steward’s Records, Quarterbill Books, 1720–1756). For a discussion of the impulses and influences leading JA to start a diary record at this time, the beginning of his third or junior sophister year at Harvard, see Introduction, p. 32–34.

During his last three years in college JA lived in the “lowermost northwest chamber” of Massachusetts Hall, then designated as No. 3, subsequently No. 19. In his sophomore year just completed, he shared these quarters with Thomas Sparhawk ’55; as both junior and senior sophister he had as his roommate Joseph Stockbridge ’55. (MH-Ar: Faculty Records, District Reports, 1st ser., 1752–1755.)

Peter Powers (1728–1800), Harvard 1754, came from Hollis, N.H., and lived in Massachusetts 4; he became the first minister of Newbury, Vt, and, later, of Deer Isle, Maine (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates , 13:472–478).

The meaning of the phrase “watched with Powers” is susceptible of several interpretations. Commonly, to “watch with” meant to remain awake at the bedside of a sick person (see OED ). One could also “watch” the heavens through a telescope with a fellow student, as JA later remembered doing with his classmate David Sewall “from the Roof of old Harvard Colledge i.e. Hall” (JA to Benjamin Waterhouse, 17? Aug. 1817, MHi:Adams-Waterhouse Coll.). But since the weather “remained Clowdy all night,” this interpretation hardly seems applicable. Finally, there was a local Harvard meaning for “watch,” meaning to retain, by permission, a light in one’s study for as much as two hours beyond the required 9 p.m. student retiring hour (Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard , p. 28).

9 Saturday. JA 9 Saturday. Adams, John

9 Saturday.

At Colledge, the weather still remaining Clowdy all Day, till 6 o’Clock, when the Clowds were Dissipated, and the sun brake forth in all his glory.

10 Sunday. JA 10 Sunday. Adams, John

10 Sunday.

At Colledge a clear morning. Heard Mr. Appleton expound those words in 1. Cor. 12 Chapt. 7 first verses, and in the afternoon heard him preach from those words in 26 of Mathew 41 verse, watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation.1

44 1.

Harvard students attended services on Sundays in the First Church of Cambridge (Morison, Three Centuries of Harvard , p. 94). This was a structure built in 1706, since known as “the third meetinghouse,” which was replaced in 1756. “Facing the south, it stood on Watch House Hill southwest of the present Lehman Hall” (Hamilton V. Bail, Views of Harvard: A Pictorial Record to 1860, Cambridge, 1949, p. 41). Its minister was Rev. Nathaniel Appleton (1693–1784), Harvard 1712 (Sibley-Shipton, Harvard Graduates , 5:599–609).